6R - The Michigan Daily Weekend Magazine - Thursday. February 26. 1998
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The Michigan Daily Weekend Ma
. 6... ..) . b.
Top to bottom:
" A stone fish pond sits at
the entrance to the
Conservatory.
- An overhead view of
barrel cacti
- An approximately 12-
foot-tall Pereskia
Grandifolia
i4
* Left: A colorful Borneliad, a relative of the
pineapple
- Top right: Kelley tends to the cacti.
- Bottom right: The endangered insectivore
Tepenthes Bicalcarata lures its prey with
sweet nectar that drips down its fangs. Once
the insect is caught in the plant's cup, it is
slowly digested byprotolytic enzymes and
then absorbed.
Photostory by Paul Talanian
No cash? Stuck in A2 this spring break? Tired of winter in the Midwest? The answer: a free, warm,
flowery paradise. Located about 10 minutes from campus at 1800 N. Dixboro Rd., the Matthaei
Botanical Gardens offer warm-temperate, desert and even tropical environments inside greenhouses
unscathed by the tempestuous El Niho. Inside the 17,000-square-foot Conservatory, visitors find
botanical specimens from around the world, a small fish pond and Senior Horticultural Assistant
Rodger Kelley. Kelley has been caring for the plants for the past 20 years by watering them (as might
be expected) and through integrated pest management - a process whereby predatory and parasitic
insects are introduced to the greenhouse to control plant-threatening pests. So get on up and get down
to the only place in town where you'll be hot and dry in one room, hot and sweaty in the next, and all
the while afraid you might bump into a cactus.
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